Francis Simard

Francis Simard, of Montreal, Quebec, was a member of the Chenier cell of the terrorist group, the Front de Libération du Quebec (FLQ). The goal of the group was to have the Canadian province of Quebec secede from Canada and become an independent Marxist country. Members of the terrorist group were responsible for the events known as the October Crisis.

- Francis Simard -

In 1963, the FLQ was organized and trained in terrorism by Georges Schoeters, an itinerant Belgian revolutionary, whose hero was Che Guevara. At least two of the FLQ members had also received guerrilla training in selective assassination from Palestinian commandos.

From 1963 to 1970, members of the FLQ committed over 200 violent crimes, including robberies of dynamite, bombings, bank hold-ups and at least three violent deaths by FLQ bombs and two murders by gunfire.

In 1966 a secret eight-page document entitled "Revolutionary Srategy and the Role of the Avant-Garde" was prepared by the FLQ outlining its long term strategy of successive waves of robberies, violence, bombings and kidnappings, culminating in insurrection and revolution.

Francis Simard became involved in revolutionary activities in 1969 when he campaigned against the existence of McGill University, Montreal's English University. On October 10, 1970, Bernard Lortie’s Chenier cell of the terrorism group kidnapped and murdered Quebec Vice-Premier and Cabinet Minister, Pierre Laporte. This crime was part of a terrorist insurrection referred to as the October Crisis. In addition to Simard, the murderous Chenier Cell of the FLQ terrorist groups, consisted of its leader, Paul Rose and his brother, Jacques Rose and Bernard Lortie.

On May 20, 1971, Simard was sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of Pierre Laporte. He would be given early parole in 1982. Since then, Francis Simard has made money by writing several books on the October Crisis.